Financial Planning

We got this. The new year. Yeah, great things are ahead. Even if the stock market goes down in 2019, which I don’t think it will, be it might, it will be a great year. Because you, me, we’re doing great things in our lives. We don’t measure our lives by how well our investments are doing.

Yes, of course. Your investments are important. But so is your health. So is your family. Those are more important. And the money…well, it belongs to God anyway. You’re managing his money, his assets.

If you believe, you can’t just believe the stuff you that suits you. You’ve got to be all in…or not. And if you’re in…here’s three things to focus on to get your new year started:

We’ve got this all backwards. Retirement. Saving for retirement. Busting your butt for 40-years so one day you’ll have enough money to finally relax and check out. Finally do what you want, when you want, and just enjoy with nary a care for anyone else.

God didn’t design healthy people to only work for some arbitrary number of years and then shut down. How many stories have we heard, how many people do we know or friends know of, that retire and within months, sometimes weeks, are going out of their minds with boredom, wishing they could get their job back.

Remember this old one…what’s the best way to make a million dollars in the stock market? Start with two million.

At first blush, that sounds like a knock on stocks. Kind of like, how do you leave Vegas with a million. Go there with two million.

But upon further review, I beg to differ. I think the old joke is really touting investing. If you start with two million dollars and you make a million, now you have three million. Your two million increased by 50%. A nice return, even though we’re not considering any time frame or any specific investment.

Your IRA...You can’t take it with you...and the IRS won’t let you keep all of it while you’re still here either. We’re talking Required Minimum Distributions...or RMDs for short.

Let’s break it down. Required...that means you’ve got to do it. Minimum...that’s the least amount you have to withdrawal. It can always be more if you’d like. Distribution...jargon for withdrawal...taking money from the account. RMDs are the smallest amount of money you have to take out of your IRA.

Most of us never had to worry about paying estate tax. Beside the fact that we’d be dead before it kicked in…why would we care at that point…it really wasn’t a factor until our estate…our net worth, reached more than $5 million dollars and change.

But wouldn’t most of us like to be multimillionaires, despite pop culture’s demonizing the so called rich.

So how about a little working knowledge of the estate tax so you’ll have a jump start on it on your way to millionaire-hood.

I’m usually counseling folks on planning and preparing for financial goals. With a hurricane bearing down on Florida, your only immediate financial goal should be to swing by an ATM and get some “just in case” cash.

By now you should be prepped and ready. Water, food, batteries…you’ve seen the checklists. Time to execute if you’ve been sitting around.

Once you’re ready, there’s likely more sitting around…coming around. The waiting can be the hardest part. Here’s a couple things to tackle during the wait…if, and only if, you’ve prepared and have a plan in place for Irma.

Labor Day Weekend is upon us. The unofficial end of summer they say. Floridians know better.

I’ll be sad to see the late sunsets disappear and the US Open come to a close. Others will welcome the shorter days and football season.

It’s a new beginning…of sorts. Can’t always call it back to school as we did as kids. Seems they’re back to school a week after the Fourth of July nowadays. Let's still consider it a new beginning. A fresh start to your financial life. We’ll call it Back to Financial School. Here’s a peek at a few things you should’ve learned in school…except they never taught it.

Rules and rules of thumb…we like them because they’re a quick an easy way to figure something out or a helpful guide in decision making. Sometimes they’re based in facts…other times it's more of a cultural thing…like don’t wear white after Labor Day.

Here’s a couple more financial rules that are fun, factual, and based on real math. But keep in mind…they are still rules of thumb and just estimates.